San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-02-03

fiddler"
Il beg your pardon, Mr.. Frastingtony"
interrupted the landlady sharply, as she
fixed the society man with her awful
eye.
"How's that, ma'am?" asked the
rounder, making futile effort to escape
the eye.
Am | t understan', sir, that I'm re-
ferred to at my own table as a fiddlery'
why, my deah-"
Don't 'deah' me, sirl Heaven knows
/ suffer enough without bein' called pet
names an denounced as a fiddler by a
gent what may have elegant manners an
store clos, but which amt so amaZin'
prompt in money matters as some which
| know" Here she arose in tempest of
tears and withdrew. The boarders
grinned at the luckless Frastington, and
he laughed with the ease of a polished
and well-bred man who is never dis
turbed by the trivialities Of every day
life
Nobody enjoyed the row more than
the sharp-eycd child of the boarding
house, and she hurried off to school
happily and indeed proudly, for she had
the escort of the elegant and exclusive
Frastington as far as the elevated road.
that gentleman giving her to understand
in casual way that he was on his way
downtown to negotiate 3 per cent loan
with his banker, with which he proposed
to alleviate the financial distress of the
landlady.
Little Katie went to hot school-room.
where she sat on wooden bench and
went through her daily exercises after
the usual fashion, hurrying home at 1
o'clock for luncheon. Seven dreary-
looking women in loose wrappers sat
around the table and criticised the in
temperate habits of the landlady, who
was at that moment in the buffers PAN
try bewailing her lot. After luncheon
they all went trOoping upstairs, where
Mrs. Darlington announced her intention
of taking a ''shCrt Sleep" and rolled
over on the sofa for that purpose. The
little girl played about the room for
nearly two hours, talking quietly to her
dolls and craftily trying on her mothers
hats and bonnets before the mirror.
Then she fell to watching the children
playing in the snow in the street and,
after looking at them wistfully a long
while, she tiptoed over to the sofa, put
her arms around her mothers neck and
whispered:
Can go out little winter
NO" was the drowsy response;
you'll catch cold and be a lot of trou-
BILE if you do"
Then the child wandered down to see
the cook, but she was put out of the
kitchen, and climbing up through the
dim passages to the parlOr she softly
thrummed the piano until the first floor
sent down bowling protest and the
landlady slapped the child's hands rough
~ and sent her in tears to her mothers
room. A further row would undOubted
ly have ensued had not a salOwfaced
theatrical agent in a cape coat called
upon Mrs. Darlington and engaged her
attention by series of brisk PERSONAL
ties concerning the eminent persOnages
of the stage. During this call little Katie
sat on the stairs and at $50 after mop
ing about in various dark and unfre-
quented corners, she dressed herself with
great care and went demurely down to
the parlor where she sat in big chair
and looked at her tiny boots as lonely,
hapless and unhappy little girl as the
world could show.
The dinner was long and stupid, and
as Katie began by upsetting her soup
on the tables cloth and fidgeted under
black cloud of displeasure afterward,
she thought it would never end. Her
hope of seeing her only friend in the
house was not gratitied, for Mr.. FTast-
ingtOn did not return to dinner-a sure
proof that he had succeeded in his plot
with his banker, for he never dined at
the house when he had money enough
to purchase dinner at one of the fash
ionable cafes, it being understood that
he usually met a select group of other
brilliant and kindred spirits on such &C.
casiOns.
The child had just begun to recover
from the mishap at dinner and was sing
ing gently in an undertone when her
father announced that he was feeling a
little bit ragged and he rather thought
he would take short nap.
ut seems to me that nobody does any
thing else in this room but Sleep" said
Miss Katie petulantly. Then she went
out and listened at the various doors in
the passages until she found her way up
to the roof of the house. where she tip
tOed her way in to Mr.. Frastingtons hall
room, of which, by the way, he usually
spoke as me apartments. On the table
was sheet of paper which exploited in
golden-brown Mr.. Frastington's ducal
crest and on it Miss Katie wrote:
/ luv you very much. No more at present
from yur littul friend
Miss Catherine Darlington.
She heard the sound of many voices
below, and looking downstairs saw
some people who had come in to visit
her mother.
She danced downstairs, alive with ex-
element at the welcome interruption
and arrived in time to be told not to
make a noise and to go down and hear
the butler tinkle his banjo in the pantry
back of the dining-room.
"Oh, no; please let me stay here"
she coaxed. Il won't make a bit of
noise"
Go downstairs, Katie" said the father
with labored politeness, were goin' to
play poker and you'll only be in the
way"
'It seems" said the child, simply,
that there's no place on earth for me
to go. Everybody sends me away"
She went slowly out and recounted the
rods upon the stairs over and over until
she became frightened at the stiffness OF
the gloomy parl6rs, and stealing softly